by E J Frost
Kez sighs and begins to disentangle
herself from me. “Yeah, I’m coming.”
Before she rises completely, I catch her
waist and pull her back down to me for a
kiss. “I’ll come with you.”
“Oh.” She props herself on her elbows
and looks down at me. “Are you sure? Nev’s
going to be a mess. When she’s like this, she
– she says things she doesn’t mean. Things
that will just embarrass everyone later.”
That could be interesting. Particularly if
what the beautiful girl has to say is about
Kez. “D’you want me to stay here?”
“Um, no, I mean, I could use a hand with
her. I just don’t want you to be put off.”
After finding out that this wasn’t all an
act, that she came to me because she wants
me, not just someone who will kill for her,
there’s not much that could put me off. “Can’t
be any worse than some of the things I saw in
S.A.W.L., kitten.”
She smiles and gives me a kiss that tastes
of gratitude, and rendang. “You’re amazing.
You know that, right?”
“So I’ve been told.” I haven’t, actually.
I’ve been generally unappreciated, even by
the few people I’ve genuinely tried to help. I
can’t remember a single one of them saying
thank you. Nor can I remember anyone
looking at me the way Kez is looking at me
now. “You’re goo-ing on me. Get off.”
She lifts herself off me hastily. “The
towel—”
“Sentiment.” I pretend to wipe off my
chest. “Ick.”
She pushes at my chest, heaves a little
mock huff. I chuckle. She sits back on her
heels and looks around the dark room. “Do
you mind if I turn the lights on? I’m never
going to find my clothes in here.”
“Go ahead.” I close my eyes so the lights
don’t flare in my cat’s eye. I hear Kez tap the
control panel next to the bed, and the lights
stain my eyelids red. I open my eyes and roll
up onto one elbow. Watch Kez walk away
from the bed. She really does have the most
beautiful ass, especially when she’s wearing
the marks of my hand across each cheek.
She crosses to her clothes rack and pulls
a pair of soft, black pants off a magnehanger.
“No,” I veto the serviceable pants. We’re
in a safe place where she doesn’t need to
wear protective clothes. And we’re not
gonna be up for very long if I can help it. I
want to see her in something sexy that keeps
us both in the mood.
She holds the pants out. “No?”
“Wear what you were gonna wear if
you’d had to get noodles and knock on my
gate.”
She purses her lips. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, don’t look.”
I close my eyes and wait until the sounds
of her drawing on her clothes stop. When I
open my eyes she’s standing next to the bed
wearing a little black dress that falls to her
thighs. The dress is some soft, knitted fabric,
raveled in several places so her skin peeps
through, pearl against the black knit. It
reminds me of the ripped fishnets she was
wearing when she first came to me, in all the
right ways. She’s pulled her dreads up and
tied them at the back of her head so the
curves of her throat and shoulders are
exposed. My palms instantly itch to touch all
that soft, sweet skin.
“That’s more like it.”
“You like?” She holds out her arms and
turns a little so the dress swishes around her,
showing off her slender curves.
The little monster’s already showing its
appreciation. I rise off the bed and pull her
to me. Run my hands down to her elbows so
I can feel the dress’s softness. Slide my arm
around her waist and hold her close while I
look down at her and let the full force of my
admiration fill my eyes.
“Oh,” she breathes. “Hale—”
“Let’s go take care of your friend. Then
I’ll show you exactly how much I like that
dress.” I cup her jaw in my palm. Splay my
fingertips down her throat. Satisfy the itch.
Her skin’s just as warm, sweet and silky as it
looks.
“Okay.” She grins, that full mischievous
grin. “You can come like that. I’m sure it’d
make Nev feel better.”
I give her a smack on the ass, softened by
her dress, and hunt around in the clothes on
the floor until I find my pants.
The mess is fairly messy. Nev’s shaking,
sick and weepy, when we find her in the
house’s big communal bathroom. She’s out
of the tub, sitting on the floor in a pile of
towels. The one wrapped around her head
like a turban has slipped over her eye.
Another gapes around her chest, showing me
more of her swollen breasts than I want to
see. She doesn’t make any attempt to cover
herself when Kez and I walk in.
Kez drops down onto one knee in front of
Nev and immediately begins tucking in the
towels. “Nevie, how’re you doing, honey?”
she asks gently.
I lean against the bathroom door, far
enough back that I don’t have to look at
Nev’s tits while Kez covers them, close
enough to help if Kez needs me to. I take in
the bathroom while avoiding the cleavage
display. Kez has splashed out on this
‘fresher. There’s a huge tub that’s still half-
full of steaming water. Separate shower and
a walled enclosure for the zap can. Nicely
private. A row of three sinks. The floor
looks like tile but is warm and slightly
resilient underfoot. More tiles stretch half-
way up the walls; the upper walls are
covered with flexypane. Most of the panes
show shifting floral designs that complement
the patterns on the tiles. The panes over the
sinks are mirrored, while the panes opposite
the tub have been quartered and display
several different vid programs: news flash,
some kinda documentary about Kuseros’s
oceans, and a couple of game shows. All the
moving images can’t be restful for Nev’s
Hex-addled brain. I reach over and tap the
screens until the ocean documentary fills the
panes. Rolling waves, that’s better.
“That’s queasifying,” the beautiful girl
says sourly.
I glance at Kez, who shrugs. I tap the vid
again and pull up one of the news flashes.
Bloodied and beaten water rioters in the
streets of New Brunny. Much better.
“We must have just missed that,” Kez
observes.
We might have caused that. Dropping the
E.M.P. bomb certainly didn’t help the
situation. But Kez is involved with the
<
br /> beautiful girl, so I don’t offer any comment.
“Nevie, do you want to try eating
something?” Kez asks.
“No. I just want to lie down.” A petulant
whine creeps into her voice. “I’m so cold.”
“Okay, honey. Can you walk?”
“I don’t know.”
Kez glances at me. “Snow, could you
—?”
I nod. Cross the room to the beautiful girl
and swing her up into my arms. She really is
frighteningly light for how pregnant she is.
“Where are we going?” I ask Kez.
She tips her chin at a door across from
the one through which we entered. “Through
the kitchen and game room. First door on the
right.”
“Can I sleep in your bed?” Nev whines.
“I can’t get warm in mine.”
I glance at Kez and lift an eyebrow. If
Hex-head sleeps in Kez’s bed, I’m sleeping
somewhere else. Kez keeps her eyes on
Nev’s face, and keeps her expression gentle,
but she shakes her head firmly. “We’ll get
you warm.”
Before Nev has a chance to protest, I
begin moving. Kez trails me, pressing her
hand against my upper back as I pass her. I
like having the reminder of her presence
there, and I figure she’ll steer me if I turn
wrong.
There aren’t many ways to turn. Through
the empty kitchen and lounge where the boys
were playing games before dinner. The big
screen is dark. Couches empty. Left down a
hallway that separates the bedrooms from the
greenhouse area. The hallway lights come on
as we enter, as does the bedroom light when
I turn right as instructed. Otherwise, the
house is dark.
“Where is everyone?” I ask Kez.
“Duncan said he was going to Bounce
after dinner. Ape and Gig probably went
with him.”
“What’s Bounce?” I ask.
“It’s a club,” Kez says. “They’ve got
some harnesses rigged above the dance floor
so you can flip around in the air over the
dancers. It’s fun. We go a lot.”
I glance over my shoulder at her. “You
like to dance?”
She nods, big blue eyes meeting mine.
“Me too.”
The blue eyes crinkle into a smile.
“Horizontal mambo?”
“My specialty.”
That gets me the full mischievous grin I
want. I wink at her before turning my
attention to navigating the beautiful girl’s
room. It’s almost as messy as Junior Pimp’s.
And, I discover as a brown and black shape
streaks out from under a clothes-draped
mound that might be a chair, there are rabbits
in the wreckage.
I sweep junk off the bed with my forearm
and dump the beautiful girl into the cleared
space. The towels slip again, but I’m getting
inured to the sight of her tits. The only thing
I’m really interested in seeing is how quickly
she can fall asleep.
She tucks herself into a ball in the middle
of the bed. Pulls the rumpled covers around
herself and shivers down into them. Kez
starts clucking like a mother hen. She tugs on
the covers. The beautiful girl doesn’t want to
relinquish them. She twists herself deeper
into the mess.
I lean against a wall – the only clear spot
in the room – and watch the short tug of war.
Kez wins and gets the bed straightened
out. By the time she does, Nev’s eyes are
leaking again, whether from pain, frustration
or just self-pity, I can’t tell. Kez sits on the
edge of the bed and tries talking to the
beautiful girl, who responds in whiny
monosyllables. The whining climbs to a
higher, more strident pitch. None of it is
revealing, or interesting. It’s just noisy. A
never-ending litany of poor me. Kez’s efforts
to calm Nev down by brushing her hair don’t
seem to reduce the noise level any.
Finally, the whining gets too much for
me. I climb onto the bed behind the beautiful
girl and pull her back against my chest.
Kez’s eyes meet mine over her friend’s
shoulder. Those big blue eyes narrow;
there’s a look in them that could be . . . hurt.
I watch Kez for a moment. I want to shut
Nev up, but not at the cost of hurting my
kitten. I don’t know why she dislikes seeing
me hold Nev, but it clearly bothers her.
I wink at Kez to reassure her. Gesture for
her to continue brushing the beautiful girl’s
hair while I massage her neck. A lot of the
whining has been about how cold she is, so I
tuck her against my chest and let my body
heat warm her. The whining drops to a
tolerable level, and then off completely as I
rub my thumbs up and down the vasal nerves
behind her ears. Finally, she drops into a
stupor. Once I’m sure she’s unconscious, I
lower her into the nest of blankets and slide
off the bed.
“Wow,” Kez says. “I’ve never seen her
fall asleep that fast.”
“Magic touch,” I tell her, wriggling my
fingers. “Get some more towels.”
The beautiful girl will need them by the
time she wakes up. Stimulating the vasal
nerve reduces heart rate and blood pressure
– to the point of unconsciousness – but it also
cranks the bowels into overdrive. I’ve heard
Hex makes you constipated, so maybe one
will offset the other, but I doubt it. She’ll
wake up messier than she went down. She
deserves it for being so fucking noisy.
After we’ve got the towels positioned
and the beautiful girl tucked under the
covers, I grab Kez around the waist. She
squeaks, struggles for a moment, and then
lets me throw her over my shoulder.
“Where are we going?” she asks
breathlessly.
I bounce her on my shoulder, run my hand
down over the curves of her ass, so easily
accessible in this position. “Back to bed,” I
tell her. Where we belong.
Chapter 15
We fuck all night. Fast and furious, slow
and gentle. Every way I can imagine, until
my dick is so sore that even brushing up
against Kez’s soft ass makes me wince. We
fall asleep wrapped around each other. Best
sleep I can remember. No nightmares. No
jerking awake, shaking and reaching for
ghosts. When I do wake, gently sliding from
sleep to warm, drowsy awareness, Kez is
right there, tucked tight against me.
She wakes when I do. With one of those
soft, sleepy, incredibly sexy murmurs. Her
arm tightens across my chest. “You’re still
here.”
“Where else would I be?” I whisper
back, not wanting to disturb the stillness of
the sleeping house. The boys cam
e back in a
brief rush of noise about an hour ago, while
Kez was enthusiastically riding me again.
Since then, the house has been quiet.
“I don’t know . . . I mean, guys leave.”
She snuggles against me.
“Yeah?” Whoever did was an idiot. This
might not be the best part about sleeping with
Kez, but it’s pretty fucking close. I nuzzle her
hair. Breathe in that soap scent that makes
everything feel so fresh and clean. “Who?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
She doesn’t get off the hook that easy. I
shift onto my side, trap her against my body.
“You owe me for sayin’ my name. Tell.”
She sighs. “I don’t think any of the guys
I’ve been with have stayed the night. Chain
lived here and he always went back to his
own room. I figured, I don’t know, maybe the
rabbits put them off. At least a couple of
them usually sleep on my bed.” She lifts her
head a little. Surveys the end of the bed
where, by the warmth and weight, I’d guess
at least two rabbits are resting, although I
haven’t bothered to look. “Or maybe I
snore.”
“Louder than a burla-burla,” I tell her,
referring to a native bird known for its loud,
snorting call.
“You’re horrible, you know that? I don’t
snore.”
She does, but I don’t mind. I like
everything about sleeping with her, even her
soft, breathy little snores. “So, how many
have there been?”
“Oh, we’re not going to play the numbers
game, are we?”
“Yeah.” And unless she’s been a nun, I’ll
win. Long periods of incarceration cut down
on your number of potential partners. Unless
you like them hairy.
“Twelve, okay? Including you.”
I poke her in the ribs. “You’re what,
twenty-five standard?”
“Twenty-seven. Twenty-eight in three
months.”
A little older than I expected. She doesn’t
look it. “Okay, twenty-seven, and you slept
with your first guy at what, fifteen?”
She sighs. “Nineteen. I told you, no guys
at the House. After that, I had Ape to look
after. Having a little brother around all the
time is not conducive to nookie. Honestly, I
don’t understand how women with a ton of
kids find the time.”
I chuckle. “Okay, nineteen. So it’s been
eight years. And you’re tellin’ me there’s
only been a guy or two a year? C’mon.”
“You’re making me sound like a loser.
Thanks.”